Full Moon Fever!

Words and photos by Ian Tocher
3/22/03

After one day of intermittent rain and another of intermittent oildowns, the National Muscle Car Association completed its season opener Mar. 15-16, under a full moon at Atlanta Dragway. The wait was worth it, though, as both Pat Musi in Pro Street and Chuck Samuel in Pro Outlaw made record-setting passes on their way to scoring event wins. A good crowd also was on hand right 'til the end to see 13 class champions crowned at the NMCA/Hot Rod Power Festival Nitrous Express Spring Shootout.

California's Dave Bowman provided the first excitement of the weekend in Atlanta
when he was unhurt in a devastating qualifying crash. (Photo courtesy of NMCA)

The only serious mishap of the weekend came during qualifying on Saturday, when Dave Bowman didn't even get to record a time after making the long tow from California to enter his first NMCA Accel/DFI Pro Outlaw race. Bowman crashed his twin-turbo boosted '69 Chevelle on his inaugural pass when the Chevy took a hard left shortly before the finish line and ended up bouncing hard off both walls before skidding to a stop in the left shutdown lane. The impact was so severe the car's whole front clip was torn off and sailed skyward after it hit the right guardwall. Miraculously, Bowman was unhurt in the spectacular accident and even stuck around on Sunday to watch the elimination rounds.

SAMUEL SLAMS 'EM!

Despite qualifying his turbo-boosted 2001 Mustang only seventh in the 16-car Pro Outlaw field in Atlanta, Chuck Samuel looked pre-ordained to the winner's circle once eliminations began on Sunday. He got to take it easy in the first round when Kevin McCurdy's Trans Am broke, but had to go up against three-time and defending class champ Marc Dantoni in round two. No problem. Samuel, from Kingston, IL, left with a .023 holeshot, then powered through a 6.537-secs run at 218.48 mph to unofficially reset both ends of the Pro Outlaw records, while number-two qualifier Dantoni made a very respectable 6.591 at 213.30 mph effort.

Car owner Kevin Marsh and driver Chuck Samuel usually run the Fun Ford series
and had to bolt in an extra 300 pounds to make their 2001 Mustang legal for
NMCA Pro Outlaw competition.

Number-three qualifier Randy Adler was Samuel's next victim and seemed to sense it even before lining up for the start. "We've got to step on it, it's gonna' be do or die for us," Adler said while prepping his deep-black and blown '57 Chevy. Both drivers left hard in the semis, but Adler's car immediately darted left from the right lane, forcing him to shut it down while Samuel streaked to a 6.519-secs pass at 218.48 to officially break the E.T. and top speed records by 4/100s and four mph, respectively.

NEXT PAGE >>